Some Belfast households are facing a three-week wait for their next bin collection after an overhaul of the city’s rubbish pick-ups.

But refuse chiefs at City Hall say they are allowing residents to leave out bin bags the next time the bin lorry comes around.

The move comes after an issue arose with letters that were supposed to be sent to households telling people which day their bins would be collected as part of a large scale change in the system currently being rolled out.

It is understood thousands of homes did not get the letters, with many people leaving their bins out this week only to find they were not collected. Some households are facing a delay of only several days to see the bins emptied, however some are facing much longer.

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However, on Tuesday it emerged that some of the letters ended up in a skip in North Belfast.

The Council said in a statement that they "discovered that approximately 30-40% of the letters [were] not delivered on the first day".

They added: "We were also advised yesterday that letters were found in a skip in the Oldpark area; when this was inspected we retrieved hundreds of letters.

"We are working to rectify the situation by having new letters issued by post; we are working to get these out from this weekend but it may take up to two weeks. We did monitor the situation and were assured that the programme was being successfully implemented.

"Feedback from public did not suggest anything different. We had continued to publish messages about the changes in the press, on social media, online etc."

DUP MLA, Emma Pengelly tweeted a reminder on Monday night about the collection days, quoting a Belfast Council tweet. The Council tweet was met with a number of replies from residents upset at the delay and what they saw as a lack of information on the changes.

In a statement issued this morning, Belfast City Council said they sent more than 160,000 letters to households “to explain specific changes to their bin collection schedules”.

However, they added: “The letters were issued on week beginning 19 September, through a third party mail delivery supplier and following complaints we are now reviewing the deliveries with this contractor.”

It is thought that around 40 per cent of homes did not get the letters.

The Council reiterated that they had issued information via the media and social media and that if people had not received a letter by October 14 they should call their call centre and “we would tell them their new collection day”.

They added: “We apologise to residents who may feel ill-informed and we are aware that some households will have a three-week wait for their next collection.

“Therefore, as part of our planning we have made provision so that all residents may present rubbish bags alongside bins with their first general waste collections. Additional recycling materials can also be taken to the nearest household recycling centre.”

The Council appealed to people to visit their website www.belfastcity.gov.uk/bins or contact us on 028 9027 0230 or email refusecollections@belfastcity.gov.uk to make sure they know their new bin collection schedule.